[nfbcs] What Do You Do about Inaccessible Websites for Which the Customer Service Is Dumb

[Nicole Torcolini]

            There is a website called Nextdoor (http://nextdoor.com) that
used to be somewhat accessible, but, after *improving* their website several
months ago, it is almost unusable with a modal screen reader. When the
changes first began, I was in contact with one of the developers who made it
sound as though accessibility might be something that they at least
considered in the future. For various reasons, I have not contacted them
again for about a year. Both times that I contacted them this year, the
responses were, well, stupid is the best word that I can find to describe
it. The first time, they did not know what a screen reader was and said that
that was not a feature that they were planning to add to the website. In my
second attempt, I explained a little more about what a screen reader is and
told them what I wanted to do to help. Although the second response was a
little better, it was still completely useless, especially since there is no
way for me to respond, even though I point blank said in my second message
that there had been no way to respond to the first response.

            If this was something that I did not care about using, or if
there was a comparable equivalent, I would just let this go. However, this
is how people spread information, sell stuff, etc. in my area. Although I
can read the website fine, posting anything of my own is a real pain.

            What do people do in these situations? I don't think that legal
action is the best idea, but somebody needs to do something to get them to
realize what is going on here. I prefer not to share the messages on list,
but I can send them to anyone who might have a suggestion.

 

Nicole